The background description provided herein is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of the presently named inventors, to the extent it is described in this background section, as well as aspects of the description that may not otherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neither expressly nor impliedly admitted as prior art against the present disclosure.
Computing devices are being more and more frequently utilized for electronic communication. For example only, a user may utilize his/her mobile phone or computing device to participate in a communication session. A communication session may feature, e.g., multi-way text-based chat, real-time audio conversations, and/or video conferences, which typically allow a user to communicate with one or more other users in real-time. Such real-time communication may, in certain circumstances, be more desirable than email and other “asynchronous” electronic communication forms that typically involve relatively long delays between users receive and/or respond to messages. For example only, real-time electronic communication may provide a more social interaction between users as it may more closely resemble in-person communication where users see, hear and interact with each other.
Known mechanisms for initiating real-time communication sessions are cumbersome and inefficient. Such mechanisms include a user sending a message, invite, etc. to another user to see if that other user is available to communicate at that time. In the event that the other user is unavailable, the other user may reply at a later time when the original user has become unavailable. Accordingly, users may exchange emails, text messages, voicemails, and/or other communications just to set up a date and time when the users are available for real-time communication. Even when the users agree on a date and time for a communication session, one user is typically late or early, or is no longer available at the scheduled date and time. It would be beneficial to provide an improved technique for initiating communication sessions between users that ameliorates or eliminates one or more of the issues described above.